


Hello

by trust_me_iknow



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, HP: EWE, ss/hg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-27
Updated: 2013-02-27
Packaged: 2017-12-03 19:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/701991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trust_me_iknow/pseuds/trust_me_iknow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre/During/Post Battle<br/>Just a little one-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hello

He had no idea when it started, but he remembered when he noticed.

 

It was late fall, unusually warm for Scotland and many of the children were enjoying the day by the lake.  He was shadowing the boy, following his movements whenever he could spare the time, making sure he wasn’t ruining a perfectly good, if not absolutely insane, plan with his foolishness.

 

She was there, sunning herself, flanked by the two halfwits.

 

He was disillusioned and quiet as a mouse, years of spying serving him in this menial, but important, task.  

 

Mission accomplished, he turned towards the castle.  The hair on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end.  Sparing a glance over his shoulder, his eyes locked with hers.  Her head was tilted to left and she was smiling a sad sort of smile.

 

_She sees me._

 

********

No one saw him.  They looked at him, spoke to him, but they never _saw_ him.  

 

From that moment, he watched her watch him, always with that sad little smile.

 

She watched him swooping about, watched him make snide comments, watched him eat and interact and try, try, try to prepare them for the monumental task ahead.  She watched him and understood.  She knew something was coming.

 

_Always watching, always knowing something, clever little thing that she is._

 

He watched her.  Watched her prepare herself and her ever present shadows for things they couldn’t possibly begin understand.  He watched her steel herself for what was to come, watched her worry her lip and nick numerous ingredients for anything from a standard healing potion to Polyjuice.  He watched himself let her.

 

********

 

At night he allowed himself to dream of a world where she would come to him.  He dreamt of a world where he wasn’t so tired and so utterly alone, where she kissed him with something close to love and held him until he could finally sleep.  He dreamt that he wasn’t facing certain death, that the world was open to him and she was by his side.

 

********

 

She was so completely unaware of the ways she devastated him.  

 

He was coming undone.  Her little hand laid against the scratchy wool of his coat, that damned smile on her sweaty face.  She fairly radiated confidence

 

_Fucking Slughorn and his fucking luck potion._

 

A surprised shout came from the hallway.

 

“Go.”

 

Go, she says.

 

_She knows, she knows, always knows, oh fuckfuckfuck..._

 

He touches her face, grazing her lip with his thumb.

 

And then he went, leaving behind the only woman to make him _feel_ , the only woman to _see_ him since Lily.  He left to kill the manipulating bastard who had controlled his life since he was a child.

 

The only man who ever loved him.

 

*******

Months, weeks, days passed and he could do nothing but carry on.  He caught mere glimpses of her as she became haggard and worn, fading with the burden she carried.

 

Her eyes were haunted and her body withered to practically nothing, all angles and ribs through her thin jumper.

 

What’s a sword here or a narrow escape there when he could do nothing to erase that _look_...

 

*******

Their breaths came out in little clouds.  She stared at him, lips chapped and red, worrying the threadbare hem of her sweater.  She was alone, he had made sure of it.  Boy-Wonder and the Ginger Prat were off being heroic. 

 

Despite her overly thin body and slightly stooped shoulders, she looked as fierce as a lioness, her ridiculous hair like a halo around her head.  Her eyes swept his figure until she was looking him in the eye and suddenly he was breaking, being shred into a million pieces by this tiny slip of a girl.

 

It was a fleeting thought, a mere moment that caused him to take those three strides, to crush her to him.  Her mouth was insistent and perfect against his and she smelled like sweat and fear and something so completely indefinable that it made his heart stutter.

 

He tasted salt.  She was crying and he briefly wondered if all first kisses should be this heartbreaking.

 

 

*******

 

As he was dying, it was her face he saw, her brown eyes brimming with tears.

 

_Not just brown, you unmitigated twat...like hot tea, steaming and warm and home._

 

He poured blood and leaked memories.  Everything he had, he gave.  Except for her.  That he would keep.

 

 

Then there was nothing.

 

 

 

*********

 

The first breath was like fire.  It choked and scalded and made him ache for that nothingness.  Everything burned and he let loose a pathetic, mewling whimper.

 

 

He felt cool fingers and something liquid and bitter and everything went black again.

 

********

 

He cracked his left eye and took a tentative breath.  He’s throat hurt, hurt so much that it shocked him, but it didn’t make him writhe in agony as before.

 

He shuddered and breathed deeply through his formidable nose, lungs expanding and contracting.  He noted the potions and medicine smell of Saint Mungo’s and something else, something achingly familiar.  He turned his head and there she was, watching him wake.

 

She smiled at him, all sweetness and light and salvation.

 

“Hello, Professor.”

 

“Hello, Miss Granger.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is completely un-beta'd, so if you spot any mistakes please let me know. (Oh gosh, I'm so nervous! I never post what I write.) Also, it's rated teen because of cursing. As I said, I've never posted something I've written and I don't know if that's a thing. Just to be safe.


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